Excursions, Irish Style

Blog Post by: Paul Lundberg

September 1, 2013 - 8:52 AM

A couple nights ago a few students and I went into town to see a group known as Asland. They mostly performed covers of songs, with a few original songs. We were lucky to have gotten a group rate allowing us to pay less to get into the pub. It was an amazing experience to see the town of Spiddal come out and watch the performance. It did not take long for the performers to notice that we were American, and not Irish. Once he discovered this he jested with us about it. The night ended with bursts of energy as once they had completed their final songs people began banging on the table begging for more. Asland was happy to comply with the demands.

Our most recent excursion took my classmates and I to the Aran Islands, we went to the biggest island known as Inishmore. We took a ferry to the island and stayed overnight to see all the ruins. During this time we walked close to the entire length of the island. This large amount of walking did not go unrewarded as Dún Aonghasa had some of the most splendid views I have ever seen with a sheer drop of about 300 feet. Furthermore it was a clear day, uncommon in Ireland, allowing for a jaw dropping view of the sapphire blue ocean.

The spectacular view from Dún Aonghasa

I am living life on the edge!

Our day continued with a long walk across the islands lower road (there are only two the high and low road). It was our hope to see seals basking in the sunlight on one of the beach sides on the island. Sadly we found no seals, but we were apart of a traffic jam consisting of cows, a tractor, a van, and fellow hikers. This was a laughable experience to say the least. This long walk took us to the hostel that we would be staying at for the night. It was to our great delight that the hostel provided food, and even greater so it was a buffet! My fellow classmates and I devoured the meal with ravenous hunger. It must have appeared that we had been starved for the past week, when in truth we are just poor cooks on a budget.

The next day we hiked back out to view Dún Eochla. It is yet another fort on this island used as a watch tower for invading ships. Again the spectacle was amazing as we were blessed with another clear day, despite a strong wind giving many of us wind burn. Soon we found ourselves walking back to the ferry as we were exhausted from the past days of adventure. We had to say farewell to the Aran Islands, but welcomed our warm beds waiting at our cottages.